Last Spy Standing
by Ali Ranger51
Summary: When Jack is killed by Scorpia, MI6 make good with their threat to reveal Alex to the world and Alex is sent back to Brecon Beacons to train and for protection. While the entire world is shaken from the revelation of the teenage super spy, Alex must deal with not only the new batch of SAS recruits, but assassination attempts and the ever interfering K-Unit.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**Alright, first things first I want to say that I inherited this story from **_**Alvineju of Baron**_** who got it from **_**Gold is Power. **_

**Before I start with the actual story would like to acknowledge the previous authors and give credit where it is due. **

**To Gold is Power: You started the story and I read it before and I must say that I really enjoyed it and that I am sad that you decided not to continue it. You had some great ideas, some of which have probably been lost with all the switching around of authors but I hope to do your original story justice. You had a lot of fantastic reviews and I would be ecstatic if I managed to get half that many.**

**To Stained Wolf: Stained Wolf was one of the original betas to Gold is power's 'Last Spy Standing' and they * came up with the name Last Spy Standing so I think that this needs to be acknowledged. Thank you Stained Wolf! It really is a brilliant title and I know who hard it can be to come up with a title.**

***(I'm sorry I don't know if they are male or female so if you do please let me know so I can correct it. I feel like an idiot… btw I searched up the author name and it was female but I'm not sure weather or not they are the same person because it has been a long time and names can change.)**

**To Alvineju of Baron: Thank you for passing the story over to me! While I am sad that you are unable to finish it I am also kind of glad that I was given the opportunity and privilege of continuing it. Your story just inspired me and gave me lots of great ideas!**

**To the betas for any of the previous 'last spy standing' stories: I thank you for you hard work and I really do appreciate it. I've had to read the last two stories again and again to make sure that I don't miss things or make silly little mistakes and your work on the previous stories made things a lot easier for me.**

**To ****Amitai****: I have decided to use the name ****James San Luca for Wolf because I really like it and I think that it suits him! I praise you for coming up with it and I will probably be disappointed if I ever find out what his actual name is because I will like yours so much better! :)**

**To the reviewers': THANK YOU! I have been through and read every one of the reviews for both of the previous stories (multiple times) and I have taken all of your thoughts, opinions, constructive criticism and praise under consideration when writing/editing the story because this is written mainly for the readers. I will make sure that my spelling and grammar is at a high quality as that is something that has been commented on a lot in the past and I want to make this as good as possible. Your ideas have been very helpful and they have influenced the direction that this story is going to take. So for those of you who didn't review I bet that you are kicking yourself now! :D (Hint, hint, I really do appreciate anything that you have to say so please review, even if it is just two of three words to say 'please update soon' or 'I really like this'. Every review is loved even if it is short and I especially love constructive criticism because it lets me know exactly what you are thinking. If I have made a mistake in spelling or with my grammar please can you point it out specifically so that I can go back and change it? I hate to read bad spelling just as much as you do!)**

**This story is now set after Snakehead. I know that Snakehead isn't the most recent book out but it just seems to fit with the timeframe of events in this story. Besides, that's the book that I just finished reading. :D**

**Hopefully you like my version of 'Last Spy Standing' and that it does justice to the versions that have come before. Like they say, third time lucky!**

**Ali Ranger51**

* * *

Jack Starbright glanced up at the clock on top of the fire place. Half past one. The book in her lap lay forgotten about, as was her mug of hot chocolate. Her thoughts keep going back to Alex. Again. And again. And again.

It was mid January and it was Alex's first week back at school after the Christmas holidays. Thanks to a tutor provided by MI6 Alex had been able to catch up on his schoolwork enough to be allowed to pass into the next year, which was a relief. Alex seemed sure that this time he wouldn't be bothered by MI6 again but Jack wasn't nearly as optimistic. She knew that it was only a matter of time before Alan Blunt pulled Alex out of school and coerced him into going on another mission for them again.

After Alex's last mission she had gone to the bank to speak with Mrs Jones and to her surprise the woman had agreed to see her. In no uncertain terms she had told the woman exactly what she thought of MI6 for using a boy like Alex to do their dirty work. Couldn't they see what it was doing to him?

Jack knew that no matter how sympathetic the woman had seemed, she still had no qualms about using Alex again. Mrs Jones had even had the guts to write down a phone number on a scrap of paper and to give it to Jack. In case of emergencies she had said. Yeah right. However, despite all her misgivings about the MI6 agent's intentions Jack had still memorized the number. Just in case she had told herself.

Sighing Jack got up off the chair and placed the book, still open, on the armrest. The American was tipping her drink down the sink when she heard a small creak from the hallway. It was that damn floorboard again; she really had to get it fixed. Jack froze as the full implications of the creak hit her. There was someone in the house and she knew that it wasn't Alex, he was still at school and he wouldn't be sneaking around. Or if he was he would never have stood on the floorboard. He was too good to make such an amateur mistake like that.

Slowly Jack placed her mug on the bench and began edging out of the kitchen. Jack didn't know who it was or what they wanted but she assumed that it wasn't anything good. Both Alex and his uncle had made a lot of enemies after all.

There was a small click behind her which Jack realized had been made when the intruder had switched off the safety of his gun. It didn't surprise her that the intruder was armed.

Thinking fast Jack picked up the phone and dialled frantically. There was no point trying to run. She had no doubt that the intruder would be able to stop her before she made it into the street and Jack wasn't going to die running away.

As the phone dialled Jack held it to her ear and walked confidently into the hallway passage and began searching the small cupboard by the door.

"Tulip Jones speaking." The voice on the other end was cold and emotionless and just as Jack opened her mouth to reply she found what she was looking for.

"Yes!" Jack turned around holding a baseball bat and she swung it experimentally a few times, sandwiching the phone skilfully between her ear and her shoulder. "I have a problem, Mrs Jones. You see, there is someone in my house." As she spoke Jack moved to stand to the side of the doorway and raised the bat, standing feet apart and knees bent in a perfect batters stance. The bat was a lightweight aluminium model that she had brought for Alex this Christmas and it was top of the range. Jack gave a small smile as she tightened her grip and prepared to swing.

As the intruder heard her speak he realized that he had been made and quickly he stepped into the hallway and raised his gun planning to kill his target before she tried to run. He barely had time to register that the redhead wasn't trying to escape before something hit him in the stomach with all the force of a battering ram.

The man was heavily built and well muscled but Jack was angry and she had hit the man very hard. He gave a small groan before he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Miss Starbright, I need you to get out of the house. Some people are on their way now…"

Jack never heard Mrs Jones finish her sentence. Unknown to her there had been a second gunman and even as she had given a small cry of victory at taking out the first man the second had stepped up behind her and fired his weapon. There was no way that he could have missed, he was less than a meter behind her and he was highly trained. The phone fell to the floor as the bullet passed through Jack's skull, killing her instantly.

The assassin calmly picked up the phone and pressed the end button before stepping into the kitchen and placing the phone on the bench. Beside it he placed two photographs. One of the American housekeeper and one of a smiling blond haired teen. Alex. Next he pulled out two small cages, each containing a single live scorpion and placed these carefully on top of the photos. The message was obvious. Scorpia had taken out a hit on Alex and anyone associated with him. Jack was just a warning, Alex would be next.

As the assassin went to leave he pulled out his gun once more and shot his partner between the eyes. There was no hesitation, no emotion, just a calculated decision. He couldn't take the other man with him and he couldn't leave him there to be captured by MI6. Besides, the other man had failed. He had allowed himself to be heard and had nearly blown the whole operation. Scorpia does not tolerate failure.

* * *

Mrs Jones was standing rooted to the spot in her office. She was still clutching the phone and a half unwrapped peppermint lay forgotten on the table. This was bad. Very bad. The MI6 Special Operations Deputy Head threw her phone onto her desk before turning and sprinting from the room to find Alan Blunt.

* * *

Alex was bored. The last class of the day was math but no one was doing any work. It was Friday and everyone was looking forward to the weekend. Even the teacher wasn't bothering to try and calm them down. He was just sitting at his desk, eyes focused intently on the screen of his laptop and Alex could tell that he was playing solitaire. A group of four or so girls were sitting gossiping in the back and a bunch of boys were trying to get a paper dart stuck up on the light fitting. Alex had been talking to Tom about the new Halo game out on Xbox but the conversation had turned to what Jack was going to cook for dinner tonight. Tom was coming over to spend the night at Alex's house and Jack's meals were legendary. Jack hated to cook and she refused to make anything that took longer than 10 minutes to prepare and cook.

There was a knock on the classroom door and Alex saw his teacher quickly shut the laptop and he couldn't help smiling to himself. He stopped smiling however, when he saw who had just walked through the door. It was Mrs Jones.

Alex stood up and immediately began walking towards the door, leaving his stuff at the desk. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

* * *

Barely 20 minutes later Alex found himself standing outside the Royal and General bank of London and he hesitated slightly before walking thought the front doors. He hadn't used the front entrance since he had been shot but Mrs Jones had told him that they didn't have time to go around the back. Quickly he followed her to the elevators and up to Blunt's office.

As he stood in front of Alan Blunt Alex wondered what had happened. MI6 had never pulled him out of school before. They had always waited until he was home before ringing and 'requesting' that he come down to the bank.

"Alex, I'm afraid that we have a bit of a problem. Scorpia has decided to ignore our warning and they have issued a hit out on you. I have decided that it is no longer safe for you to remain in London. As soon as we are done here you will be taken to Brecon Beacons and placed back into K-Unit." Blunt was as unemotional as ever. Alex thought that he could have had a star career as a news reader for TV if he hadn't decided to work for MI6 instead. Then the reality of what the man had said hit him.

"What! What do you mean Scorpia is after me! I thought you had made a deal with them!" Alex was breathing heavily and his eyes widened as he began to realize the full implications of what had happened. "Jack, what about Jack? What if they go after her? And why Brecon Beacons? How long do I have to stay there for?"

Blunt looked Alex in the eyes and took a deep breath before continuing and Alex felt a deep sense of forbidding. "It seems that Scorpia had decided to go back on their agreement. Perhaps they believed that we would not hold up our end of the bargain and now they have forced our hand. You remember the deal we made don't you?" Alex did remember. MI6 had threatened to tell the world about him if Scorpia hadn't backed down. Blunt had believed that the threat of MI6 telling the world that Scorpia had been beaten twice by a fourteen year old boy would be enough to make them leave him alone.

"You're going to do it aren't you?" Alex was suddenly angry. Blunt didn't give a damn about what this would mean for him. The MI6 Special Operations head just didn't want to back down to a criminal organization like Scorpia. "After all I've done for you you're just going to tell the news about me and ruin my life! And to top it all off you're sending me back with K-Unit! I've had it! I'm sick of you pushing me around! You bully me and threaten me and use me until you get what you want and then you ignore me until you need me again! I'm not going to let you do it anymore! I'm going to go home to Jack and I'm going to go to live in America with her and if the CIA doesn't want me I'm sure that Australia's offer of citizenship still stands."

Alex felt, rather than saw, Mrs Jones tense behind him and he realized that there was something that they weren't telling him. He had just spun around to face her, furious, when Blunt started speaking again as if nothing had happened. "Brecon Beacons is the safest place for you at the moment Alex. Scorpia will be doing everything they possibly can to get to you and we simply can not allow that to happen. Whether or not you are willing to acknowledge it Alex, you are one of our top agents and we can't afford to lose you. While you are at Brecon Beacons you will be surrounded by the country's elite. The best and the brightest will be there in case something goes wrong, which I doubt that it will as Brecon Beacons is one of the most secure military training sites in the world."

Blunt held up a hand to silence Alex as the young spy had opened his mouth to argue before Blunt continued to speak a little more forcefully. "You will not be able to leave the country unless we authorize it and your stay at Brecon Beacons will be indefinite until the threat of Scorpia has been removed. I will arrange for someone to travel to Brecon Beacons three times a week to tutor you with schoolwork and you will be fully involved in all aspects of training, including firearms training. As for your American housekeeper, Jack…"

"I'm so sorry Alex. There was nothing that we could do for her. Scorpia killed her earlier this afternoon; that's how we learned that a hit had been taken out on you. I," Mrs Jones paused for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing. "I can assure you that Miss Starbright's death was painless. A single shot to the back of the head. She never saw it coming. I'm really sorry Alex. I wish that we had never gotten involved in this."

Alex turned and looked out of the large window that took up most of the east wall. He gripped the window frame so tightly that his knuckles turned white and when the world started to tilt alarmingly to the left Alex rested his forehead against the glass. He couldn't believe it. Jack was dead. His entire world had just gone up in flames and Alex realized that there was nothing that he could do about it, MI6 had everything planned out. This time there was to be no fancy escape, no suicidal plan that always seemed to work. Alex was trapped, well and truly. All that he could do was weather the storm and hope that he came of the other side alive.

* * *

**A/N**

**Please review and tell me what you think! I apologize for anyone who found the long author's note at the start boring but I think that it was necessary. **

**This is my first Alex Rider fic and only my second fic altogether so I would really appreciate reviews telling me what I need to change and/or what you did/did not like. Hopefully I have everyone in character and this is a good start to the story. Originally I hadn't planned to change much from the original two fics apart from adding more detail and fixing minor mistakes but when I got to Jack I decided that I couldn't have her go down without a fight and things kind of spiralled out of control from there on. :D**

**I won't blab on for much longer, I just want to say thank you for clicking into my story and double thank you for reading on until the end. I understand how the big a/n at the start could have put some people off.**

**Ali Ranger51**


	2. Chapter 2

Mrs Jones gripped the phone tightly in her hand and took a deep breath before trying to force her mouth to work, to say the words that she never wanted to say, the words that she never thought that she would have to say. To say the two little words that will send Alex Rider's life up in smoke. To say the two little words that will create a shockwave that will shake the world to its very core. To say the two little words that will cause national secrets to be revealed. To say the two little words that will cause history to be made and that will reveal a hero. She knew that if she said the words then Alex would never be able to have a normal life, he would be forced to change his name, his face, his voice, his very identity. But if she said those two little words then perhaps he would be safe, safe from Scorpia, safe from MI6 and Blunt.

"Do it." Mrs Jones said the words.

"Yes ma'am." There was no hesitation in the reply, no sign that the man had noticed Mrs Jones' unease or her reluctance or that he had any reluctance himself. John Crawley hung up the phone, not bothering to say goodbye and picked up the heavy file in front of him. It contained all the information ever gathered on Alex Rider and each of his missions. He was going to send the information to the media. It would create a world wide scandal that would shake the intelligence community to its core but, unlike Mrs Jones, Crawley didn't hesitate. It wasn't his place to question orders.

* * *

Tom Harris was up early and as usual he was in the lounge tring to sneakily turn on the TV. Looking over his shoulder to check that his parents weren't behind him he turned on the TV hoping to get a few minutes of cartoons in before he actually had to wake up. He sighed when he realized that the news was on and he was about to turn the TV back off again when he saw something that made him snap instantly awake. Alex was on TV. There was a small picture of him in the right hand side of the screen and even though the picture was grainy it was unmistakably Alex.

"…_The world was startled to discover today that the British Intelligence agency, MI6, has been employing a teenage boy for the past year. The boy in question is fourteen year old Alex Rider who, up until very recently, lived with his American caregiver Jack Starbright. MI6 has reported that Alex has worked for various intelligence agencies, including the American CIA and the Australian ASIS on nearly ten different occasions over the past year…"_

Tom stared at the TV in shock and flopped onto the couch, trying to think about what it could mean and wondering who had handed Alex over to the media and why. God he hoped that Alex was alright.

* * *

Henry Bray was the headmaster of Brookland comprehensive and he thought that he had heard it all. There had been the normal school problems like drugs, bullying, graffiti, over controlling parents and, of course, kids that just refused to learn. However Brookland wasn't just an ordinary school. Mr Bray had also been forced to deal with computer hacking, a stalker following one of his students, the science lab exploding and other various incidences like kids falling out of busses. So, understandably, Mr Bray was under the naïve impression that nothing and of his students did any more could ever shock him.

That was until, of course, he turned on the TV one morning and found himself face to face with a picture of Alex Rider.

"…_the teenage super spy, Alex Rider, was recruited into MI6 after his uncle, Ian Rider who also worked for British Intelligence, was taken out by an assassin during an undercover assignment in Cornwall. At the time of his Uncle's death Alex was not aware of his involvement in MI6 and when he became suspicious about the 'accident' that had reportedly killed his Uncle Alex decided to do some investigating of his own. We are lucky enough to be able to show you some footage of a resulting confrontation between…" _

Mr Bray sat, speechless as he watched Alex move through what appeared to be a breakers yard. He had long since tuned out the voice of the reporter. He was, understandably, shocked.

* * *

Snake turned his head to glance at the bedside table clock. 8:00. He would have to get up soon. After two weeks leave K-Unit was being assigned to protection duty. Snake sat up, pushing his fiancée's head off his chest gently before staggering over to the one suite bathroom and observed himself in the mirror.

Snake's birth name was Chris Macmillan. He was 25 years old and had joined the army 7 years ago, just after he finished school with the desire to become a medic for the Armed Forces. When he joined, he was in the 1st Battalion Scots Guards and was there for 4 years until he joined the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment. He was one of the 17 people to pass out of 150 people in the selection, that spring. By that time he became a corporal Snake had found that and had not gone down the medic road at all. However as he still had a desire to work in army medicine the SAS trained him as a patrol medic. He was placed with a hospital for a couple of weeks to get the high standard that was required for the SAS. That was when he met his fiancée, Lauren Young, who was one of the doctors at the hospital with which he trained. She was Scottish, like him, had long red hair, and brown eyes. She could lose her tempter faster than Wolf some times.

Showering quickly Snake made his way into the kitchen and was pleasantly surprised to find that Lauren had poured him a bowl of cereal. As he picked up the bowl he felt a thin arm go around his waist. "When are you vanishing?" Lauren said her lips right next to his shoulder. Snake laughed.

"Vanishing soon, Lauren." He gazed at her while running a hand through her hair. "I have to pick up Fox."

As Lauren went back to their room to find Snake's dogtags, Snake reached for the remote and quickly turned on TV, flicking absentmindedly to a news channel.

"…_once he had agreed to work for MI6 Alex Rider was sent to Brecon Beacons, a SAS training camp in Wales, for two weeks of training with some of Britain's elite. While most of the training Alex underwent is classified I can report that Alex was placed into a unit and given the codename Cub. He underwent a crash course of fitness training and tactics during his stay at the training facility but he was not however taught how to shoot. It was not the wish of the MI6 to teach Alex to kill and while…"_

There was a crash as Snake's half full bowl of cereal hit the ground and shattered. Muttering a quick apology to Lauren, Snake grabbed his dogtags out of her hand and picked up the phone, speed dialling Wolf as he picked up shards of pottery off the floor.

* * *

Wolf, or James San Luca, was 25 year's old. He joined the army as a boy soldier at the age of 16. When he entered he joined the 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales Regiment and worked his way up to a sergeant over the 6 years with them. When he hit 22 he went into the SAS selection toughed it out to the end and passed. Wolf was the leader of K-Unit. He was also hung-over and halfway through downing his second cup of coffee when the phone started to ring. He was dressed in his uniform, his bag ready and waiting at the front door and he wasn't in the best of moods. He contemplated just leaving the phone and walking out the door but decided against it. "What." Just because he had decided to answer the phone didn't mean that he needed to be polite.

"Turn on the TV." Wolf wondered what exactly what had been so important that Snake couldn't wait another hour until they were all together. He didn't bother asking though. He knew Snake well enough to know that if he asked he wouldn't get an answer until he did what Snake said.

Grumbling about it being too early for TV and the sound hurting his head, Wolf flicked through the various channels until he found what he was looking for. It was unmistakeable. Even as he watched he saw Cub crash through a glass roof and pull a gun on the president. Disbelievingly he watched as Cub emptied the clip and then dropped the gun and held up his hands.

"…_tests run after the incident proved that the Stormbreaker computers were laced with enough chemical poisons to kill hundreds, if not thousands of schoolchildren. Although the name of the chemical used has not been released what I can say is that, if not for the quick thinking actions of Alex Rider, the release of the…"_

Wolf hung up the phone, not bothering to say anything to Snake and turned off the TV. Calmly he pushed his chair back, washed out his mug, and strode over to the door. He grabbed his bag and left, locking the front door behind him. It was far too early and he was far too hung-over to bother trying to figure out what it all meant.

* * *

Eagle sighed as he watched his 4 month old son asleep in his arms. His wife, Nancy, was in the lounge watching TV. She had short brown hair with green eyes, and taught math at the local high school. The two had met nearly three years ago and had been married for two. When their son, Andy, had been born, Eagle had named two of his team mates, Fox and Snake as his godparents. Nancy said he had been drinking at the time.

"I have to go soon." Eagle said regretfully as he looked down at his son.

"Conner, come and have a look at this. Wolf's on TV."

Conner Davidson, or Eagle as his team mates knew him, was 24 years old and a child at heart when he was not in the killing field. He was a sniper and weapons specialist, and was an expert in what he did. One shot, one hit, one dead body. At the age of 19 he signed into the 4th Battalion Rifles and when he hit 22 he signed up to the selection and passed first time round. When he got his wings (SAS badge a winged dagger) he was put in with K-Unit as their sniper. The three other men in the unit, Wolf, Snake and Fox, didn't talk a lot, but Eagle had changed that very fast. They were normally very private men and preferred to stay out of the spotlight so, naturally when Eagle heard Nancy say that Wolf was on TV he assumed that she had been mistaken.

She wasn't. As Eagle watched, eyes fixed on the screen he watched Wolf lead an assault operation on what looked like an old fashioned school. What was more surprising though, was the person that Wolf was with. It was Cub. Eagle handed Andy to his wife and sat on the couch, very still as he watched the operation progress. The cameras were very good quality and had caught the assault from nearly every angle possible. Wolf was a good leader too and the operation seemed to be going very well. At least until the camera cut to a shot of Cub, wandering around what appeared to be a classroom. As he watched a rather large woman entered the room and immediately attacked Cub. Just as it seemed that Cub was about to become shark meat, Wolf entered the room and shot the woman, but not before taking a bullet himself. He watched as Cub raced over to see if Wolf was alright before glancing at something off screen before grabbing a fallen rifle and jumping out a window. Before he could see what happened next however the footage stopped and a newsreader appeared on the screen. Eagle scrambling frantically for the remote and quickly pressed the volume button so he could hear what the newsreader was saying.

"…_in an attempt to stop the headmaster of Point Blanc academy from escaping via helicopter, Alex Rider, in a move right out of a James Bond film, drove a snowmobile up a ski ramp and into the side of the helicopter. The resulting explosion was large enough that… _

Quickly Eagle muted the TV in an attempt to quieten Andy, who had just woken up and was screaming loudly. He looked guiltily at Nancy before giving her a kiss goodbye and handing her back the remote. He should have left ten minutes ago and he was going to be late. He didn't have the time to watch TV, he would force Wolf to tell him what had happened later and grabbing his bag he walked out to his car, shouting goodbye to his wife as he went.

* * *

Fox was 23 years old but he hardly ever used his SAS codename anymore. His real name was Ben Daniels and he was currently working for MI6, even if he had taken a rather roundabout rout to get there. By the time he turned 19, Ben was in the 3rd Parachute Regiment but it wasn't until he was 21 that he went in for the selection. He passed easily and enjoyed working with his team mates in the SAS but nearly a year ago he had been offered a job with British Intelligence. After a long internal debate he had taken the job and to his surprise Ben had found that he enjoyed being a spy. Even though he was no longer an official part of K-Unit he still say his old team mates regularly and had even been named as a godparent to Eagle's son, Andy. They had worked together only a few times since Fox had left for MI6 and he was looking forward to the upcoming assignment with them. It was supposed to be a protection detail and it looked as if it was going to be a long one. Who the hell did you have to piss off anyway to need a whole SAS team for protection?

There was a ring of the doorbell and Fox shouted at whoever it was to hold on a minute while he finished packing. He didn't need to bother asking who it was. K-Unit were the only ones brave enough to press the doorbell repeatedly like someone was obviously doing now.

Snake heard Fox yell at him to "god damn wait a minute, will you!" and promptly ignored him. He continued to lead on the button and smiled as he heard the unmistakable swearing coming from inside the apartment. Snake thought that he deserved it anyway. It was his fault after all that he was here. If Fox hadn't gone and gotten himself shot then Snake wouldn't have had to leave Lauren early to go and pick Fox up. He pleasantly ignored the fact that he had been the one to insist that Fox didn't drive himself.

"Come on, come on, open the friggen door already." Snake made sure to keep his foul language to a minimum because last time he had started swearing in the hallway an old lady from down the hall had come out and started yelling at him. Terrorists with guns he could handle, Crazy old ladies though were another mater entirely. "I have something really important to show you!"

Scowling Fox opened the door and stepped out of the way as Snake practically ran through the doorway and began hunting for the remote. "Have you seen the news yet?"

Fox rolled his eyes. Was it really too much to expect a hello before someone barged into his house?

"No Snake I haven't seen the news. What's so important that it justifies you arriving at my house nearly half an hour early anyway?" despite his earlier irritation at his team mate Fox found that he was curious. Normally Snake didn't bother to watch TV so whatever it was must be earth shattering if Snake had left his Fiancée early because of it.

Snake ignored Fox and continued searching for the remote, giving a shout of triumph when he found it. There was a barely audible click as the TV turned on and Snake turned it instantly to a news channel.

"…_if Alex Rider had been unable to disarm the bomb, the nuclear fallout would have contaminated Russia, Norway, Finland and most of Great Britain. His actions at Murmansk saved hundreds of thousands of lives and stopped a disaster that would have rivalled Hiroshima. This was the first time that Alex Rider, teenage super spy, worked with the CIA. After just three missions for various intelligence agencies, Alex has become one of the world's top intelligence operatives. This was nearly a year ago. Since then…"_

"Did you know?" Snake's voice was hard, accusing.

Fox sighed, still in shock from the report that the newsreader was giving. "I knew that he worked for MI6. I worked with him nearly a month ago. That was when I got shot." Snake's eyes narrowed at the mention of the injury but he didn't say anything, just gestured for Fox to continue.

Fox however just shook his head though and turned off the TV. "I'll tell you the rest in the car." He picked up his bag and ushered Snake out of the apartment, locking the door as he went.

* * *

Sergeant Galloway glared at his phone fiercely. He had been on the bloody thing for over two hours, with MI6. The whole time he had talked to Blunt and Jones about one thing. Cub.

The 14 year old was being sent to Brecon Beacons in the company of K-Unit for protection and training. Galloway thought that it was a bit excessive but he wasn't going to argue with MI6 any more. They had made up their minds and nothing he could say could change that. Besides, Galloway had seen the news. Cub had become an overnight celebrity and if even half of it was true, the boy was a hero.

Cub was to work, live, sleep, eat, and learn alongside some of the most dangerous men the army had. He would learn the things the solider were learning; shooting, teamwork, first aid, intelligence gathering, use and care of equipment, weapons, etc. His training was to be much more extensive this time around. Since MI6 didn't know how long Cub was going to be in danger for he was also being assigned a tutor to help him with his schoolwork. He was to learn, History; war and politics, bits and pieces of the three sciences; mainly about how to convert ordinary things into weapons and to make them explode, math; because everyone needed to know how to do basic math, computing; how to hack into top security computers and find information and he was also to be taught a variety of other languages.

Looking at the TV and the footage that was still showing Galloway had no doubt that the boy was good at what he did. But how was he supposed to learn all that he was supposed to on top of the regular SAS training? It seemed impossible and he wouldn't be surprised if Cub burnt out within a week.

K-Unit had trained with Cub and various team members had worked with him at different times after the boy had left Brecon Beacons so they were the logical choice to carry out his protection duty. The only problem was that they didn't know yet who they were supposed to protect. They were on their way here to meet with Galloway and he was the one who was supposed to tell them that not only were they going to be babysitting Cub for an indefinite period of time, they would have to train him as well. His head hit the desk. Today was not going to be a good day.

* * *

**A/N**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter ( Especially FCgrl who sent me a super long review and let me know about using the wrong weather/whether in the first chapter. I have gone back and fixed this.) and I'm glad that most of you seemed to like it! Please let me know what you think of this chapter and whether you like what I did with the TV thing. **

**I have always wanted to do a fic where Alex gets revealed to the world and when I thought of various things in the original fics for this story I realized that I could make it fit into the story line while fixing/changing some other parts of the story to fit more with different reviews that were submitted to the first two Last Spy Standing stories. I suppose repeating all the information about Alex on the TV could have been rather boring but I couldn't think of a better way to do it. I also changed who had the injury (in the original stories it was Eagle and Fox was married to Nancy) because having Fox been shot seemed to fit in more with the storyline as this fanfic occurs about a month after 'Snakehead'. **

**Also I am aware that Sergeant Galloway hitting his head on the desk is a bit out of character for a 'strong and silent' army type of guy but I couldn't leave it out. It makes me laugh just thinking about Galloway hitting his head on the desk and there were a lot of positive reviews about it. I'm not one to try and 'fix' what is already working perfectly fine.**

**I know that I am changing and rewriting quite a bit from the original stories but, personally, I think that it flows a bit more smoothly with a bit more detail in the background and what exactly is going on. **

**Thank you again to all my reviewers!**

**Ali Ranger51**


	3. Chapter 3

With a screech of tires Snake pulled his car in next to Wolf's battered old land rover in the car park at Brecon Beacons. With a loud curse Fox got out of the passenger seat and stumbled quickly away from the car, not even bothering to wait for Snake to turn off the engine.

"Never again! I am never getting in a car with you again! I am going to personally hunt down whoever gave you a license and put a bullet in their brain! Do you have any idea how many road rules you broke on the way here Snake? Or how many times you nearly got us killed?" Snake just calmly turned off the engine and got out of the car, ignoring Fox's ranting.

"It's your own fault Fox. If you had told us about Cub sooner I wouldn't have been so distracted." Snake said, grinning.

Fox swore again and barely refrained from attacking his team mate. He had told the man repeatedly in the car. There was nothing to tell. Information about Alex was highly classified and Fox didn't even know anything. He had worked with Alex once and even then he hadn't been told anything about the kid. He had had no idea what the kid had done.

"Will you two ladies quiet down already?" Both Snake and Fox spun around trying to locate the speaker and jumped when they saw Wolf reclining in the driver's seat of his car. He had his left arm draped over his eyes and Snake instantly realized that the leader of K-Unit had a hangover. Snake grimaced. The day had started bad enough with the news about Cub and having to come into Brecon Beacons for an assignment. If Wolf had a hangover then it was obvious that the day wasn't going to get any better. Wolf could be down right scary on a normal day and Snake was willing to bet that he got a heck of a lot worse when he was hung-over.

Fox asked Wolf if he had seen the news about Cub and he raised his eyebrow when the man only grunted in reply. Before Fox could interpret what the grunt meant however he heard the crunching of tires on gravel and Eagle came around the corner in his blue 'thing'. Fox had long since given up calling the rust bucket a car. No one, not even Eagle knew what model the car was, let alone how old it was. It was a miracle that it was still running. Wolf said that the car should have laid down and died ten years ago but Eagle refused to let it go, saying that the old car had 'character'.

Eagle open the door and bounced out of the car practically shouting at his team mates. "Have you seen the news? Cub's on TV! They say that he is some kind of super spy!" Eagle looked at Fox accusingly. "Did you know?" Not waiting for Fox's reply Eagle turned to Wolf and began shouting at the older man. "How come you didn't tell us that you had worked a mission with Cub?"

As Wolf slowly sat up Fox and Snake quickly backed up, trying to get as far away from Wolf and Eagle as physically possible before Wolf exploded.

Wolf grabbed his team member by the shit and lent forward until their faces were nearly touching. "Eagle, I did not tell you that I worked with Cub because it was none of your business. Understand? I have not seen Cub since and we only worked together for a couple hours. Now, calm down, stop yelling and let's go and see the sergeant to find out why we are here. Ok?"

Eagle nodded, and immediately opened his mouth to say something before the look in Wolf's eyes stopped him. Wolf continued to study the man until he was absolutely sure that Eagle wasn't going to start yelling again before he released his shirt and started walking towards the sergeant's office.

K-Unit stared dumbstruck after their leader before they quickly shut the doors of their respective cars and following Wolf to see Sergeant Galloway.

* * *

Alex was fiddling with his watch as he sat on the edge of a small bed in what looked like an ordinary motel room. Neither the watch nor the motel room were ordinary though. The room was just one of many underneath the Royal and General bank that were there to house agents where they had nowhere else to go. Sometime agents only stayed for a day or two, sometimes they stayed for weeks. The watch was one of the 3 gadgets that he had been given by Smithers an hour previously. It contained a tracking device and bug sweeper. Smithers had seemed quite upset about it actually. He couldn't think of a name for it. Apart from the watch Alex had also been given a new exploding ear stud and more of the expanding bubblegum, BUBBLE 0-7. Alex had also been given a set of dog tags that could be turned into a diamond edged knife. Smithers had said that it would be able to cut through almost anything and remembering the diamond edged saw that he had been given for his Point Blanc mission Alex doubted that Smithers was exaggerating. Because of the seriousness of the attempt on his life Alex had been given a rather special uniform. It was made of the same material as the bullet proof ski suit and Alex hoped that he would never have to use it.

Alex had spent the last two nights in the dingy little 'hotel' room and he was sick of it. He wanted out! He wanted to see the sky, to smell fresh air, to go back to his normal life. At the same time though he knew that he couldn't and he was glad.

Alex was sick of trying to balance his two lives; constantly afraid that someone was going to find out that he was a spy or worrying that he was going to be killed by some psychopath. Alex looked sadly at the small TV in front of him. It was tuned to a news channel and even as he watched the newsreader was unwittingly destroying his life.

"…_Scorpia is one of the world's most dangerous organizations despite not being widely known outside of criminal circles. The nanotechnology used in Invisible Sword is some of the most advanced in the world and there is no doubt that, had the shells received the right frequency radio signal, death would have been almost instantaneous…"_

In a few minutes Mrs Jones would be arriving to take him to see Jack before her body was sent back to America and he was sent to Brecon Beacons. He wished that he could go to her funeral but it was too dangerous, it could put everyone there at risk of an attack from Scorpia. The way MI6 saw it there was only one place that he would be safe from Scorpia and Murphy's Law stated ensured that it was the last place that Alex ever wanted to be. Insanely though, by leaving his old life behind and going to Brecon Beacons Alex might just be able to live again. He wouldn't have to hide anymore or pretend to be someone that he wasn't.

There was a knock on the door and Mrs Jones stepped in. "Are you ready to go?"

The question was an ordinary one but it meant so much. Was he ready to leave his old life behind? Was he ready to say goodbye to Jack? Was he ready to become Cub again? Was he ready to leave Tom behind? Was he ready to stop hiding who he really was and what he had done?

"Yes, Mrs Jones, I'm ready."

* * *

K-Unit filed into Sergeant Galloway's office and stood to attention in front of his desk. Galloway stood up and nodded to K-Unit and they relaxed. Fox lent forward and shook hands with the sergeant as he was no longer officially with the SAS.

After greeting Fox, Galloway greeted each of the other members of K-Unit individually, making Wolf nervous. The Sergeant was never polite. Whatever was had happened to bring about this sudden change must have been bad.

K-Unit sat in the uncomfortable looking chairs in front of the Sergeant's desk and Wolf lent forward apprehensively. "What do you four know about Cub?"

"Not much, Sir. Each of us saw the news this mourning but we didn't have time to make much sense of what we saw. Fox and I have each worked with Cub on occasion. Why?" Wolf spoke for all of K-Unit and he was purposefully vague. He wanted to see what Galloway would tell them and he was wondering why the sergeant was talking about Cub.

The sergeant paused uncharacteristically before pulling out a heavy file from one of the draws in his desk and sitting it in front of K-Unit so that each of them could see the photo attached to the front of the brown manila folder. It was Cub. "He's your assignment. Scorpia has taken out a hit on Cub and some of the worlds best assassins are after him. He will be under your protection and you will all stay at Brecon Beacons, both for training purposes and for safety. You will be expected to help train Cub and a tutor from MI6 will come over three times a week to teach him some things that MI6 thinks essential. The folder in front of you contains all the information known about Cub, including some stuff that has been kept out of the media. Any questions?"

K-Unit all started talking at once.

"Cub? We're supposed to protect Cub!" Snake said.

"Holy shit!" Exclaimed Eagle.

"Scorpia? Why is Scorpia after Alex?" Fox sounded shocked and his right hand twitched as if to grab the folder off the sergeant's desk.

"Why us? And for how long are we meant to protect him for?" Wolf was glaring at the sergeant as if Galloway was personally responsible for his hangover.

Galloway held up his hand for silence and K-Unit immediately stopped talking. "Cub is one of MI6's most effective agents. He has a 100% success rate and has made many powerful enemies. Scorpia is one of those. The details of his involvement with them are in the file so I won't bother repeating them. As are the reasons for Cub's recent appearance in the media." Galloway's eyes flicked to the small TV on the corner of his desk. "You four were assigned to protect Cub because he knows you. As for how long this you will be protecting him for. I don't know. MI6 don't know how long it will take for them to either persuade Scorpia to back off or to give Alex a foolproof new identity. Until then I expect you to carry out you assignment without complaint. Is that understood?"

K-Unit stood to attention. "Yes sir!"

"Alex will arrive here later this afternoon. You are being assigned to the same cabin that he had during training. You four will not be required to take part in the training with the other recruits but you will be expected to keep yourselves fit. Dismissed." The sergeant was on his feet and he was standing to attention as K-Unit turned to leave, Fox leaning forward to pick up the file as he went.

Wolf was almost out the door when he heard Fox swear and he turned around to see his team mate rooted to the spot in front of the small TV. Curious as to what had caused the MI6 agent to freeze up Wolf walked back into the room and turned the TV so that he and the rest of K-Unit could see the small screen.

It was surveillance footage in font of what looked like a bank. As K-Unit watched Alex walked through the doors of the bank and stepped onto the footpath. He began to walk towards a car parked on the side of the road before he stopped and seemed to fall backwards as if in slow motion. There was no sound but Wolf could see that the people were screaming. Red began to stain the front of Alex's shirt as he lay on the footpath, not moving. A woman that Fox recognized as Mrs Jones ran out of the building and pressed her jacket to the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Snake watched, paralyzed, as an ambulance arrived and medics bundled the boy onto a stretcher, attaching an oxygen mask and an IV line even as they moved him into the back of the ambulance. The screen flashed and showed a head and shoulders shot of Alex. Eagle swore as he watched a close up of the bullet entering Cub's chest, frighteningly close to his heart. The shot was obviously professional. It was only because of sheer dumb luck that Cub had survived.

K-Unit turned away from the TV and looked each other in the eyes, each person showing an identical look of horror. This couldn't be the same Cub that they knew, could it? How had Cub turned into the person lying broken on the pavement, covered in blood?

* * *

Alex stepped out of the car and grabbed his duffel bag off of the back seat, making sure to slam the car door as he did so.

Mrs Jones looked into the cold eyes of the boy in front of her. "Are you sure that you're going to be ok? I can come in to see the sergeant with you if you want."

The teen smiled as he looked at Mrs Jones but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. The Deputy Head of MI6 was acting parental. Not for the first time Alex wondered what had happened to her two children but he didn't ask. "I'll be fine Mrs Jones. I've been here before you know."

"Ok Alex. Good luck." Mrs Jones frowned as Alex just nodded and walked away, not bothering to reply. Not for the first time Mrs Jones wished that she had never allowed Alan Blunt to use Alex. Slowly but surely it was destroying him. She just hoped that it wasn't too late to save him.

* * *

**A/N**

**Hey i should have had this chapter up last week but i was away at an over night camp thing for Q-Youth (The local Queer-Straight alliance) so i wasn't able to work on this chapter like i had planned. I hope that you like this chappie because i know that it is quite short... i couldn't make it any longer without starting up a whole new part of the chapter... **

**Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed! I know i haven't been replying and i'm sorry but i just haven't had time. It's nearly the school holidays here (YAY!) but that is also the time where all the teachers asign assesments and projects and other horrible work. this time next week will be holidays so i will have the next chapter up then!**

**Ali Ranger51**


	4. Chapter 4

After their visit to Sergeant Galloway, Wolf, Snake, Eagle and Fox had taken their stuff to the hut, thrown their rucksacks onto their respective beds and had promptly sat down on the floor to play poker before Cub arrived. However, since none of the soldiers were willing to risk losing any money-not that they had much anyway-they were playing for information. Whoever had the best hand got to read a page of Alex's file before reading it aloud to the rest of the unit.

They had been playing for nearly six hours and they were still just over half way through the file. It was very detailed. It contained lots of background information on each of the people and weaponry involved as well as a few psychiatric evaluations done on Alex after various missions. From what K-Unit could gather, the evaluations were infrequent and inaccurate. Most of the 'expert opinions' were conflicting and the report even said that some of the evaluations had been done via surveillance either because Alex had refused to sit for an assessment or because MI6 had been unwilling to inform Alex that he was being assessed.

The file also contained photographs of Alex in action during various missions and a flash drive that held some footage that had been found of Alex. Apparently the criminals of today hadn't yet learned that using security cameras and video to document their crimes was just as likely to get them busted as it was to help them. The flash drive was sitting in pride of place on Wolf's bed until they could get hold of a computer to watch it.

There was a whoop as Eagle laid out his cards, revealing a royal flush. Snake only held a pair of eights, a five, a four and a king, Fox held three Kings, a queen and a seven and Wolf held out a pair of aces and a three sixes. Before Eagle could grab the file though, Wolf held it up in the air and laughed. "If you're going to cheat Eagle, at least make sure that you do it convincingly!"

Eagle looked hurt and protested that he didn't cheat, he won fair and square. Fox and Snake just laughed; Eagle had been cheating all day but it hardly even mattered because somehow the young sniper had still managed to nearly always lose.

"Eagle, take a good look at the cards. Since when has a legit game of poker had five kings in it?" Wolf was smirking. Eagle was crestfallen.

However, before the SAS men could decide who the real winner was, the door opened and Cub walked in carrying a large rucksack and looking rather pale. Alex took in the mess of paper and photographs on the floor before he dumped the rucksack on the only unoccupied bed and sat down beside it.

"Cub! You're here! We've been waiting for you all day. How are you? Did you really shoot the president? And what about all these other missions? Did you really do all that stuff?" Eagle was on his feet, gesturing to Alex's file and he looked as if he was going to say more but he was cut off abruptly by Wolf slapping the back of his head.

"Eagle, give the kid some breathing room, would ya?" Wolf reprimanded before turning his gaze onto Alex. "So, are you going to answer or what?" He asked, grinning.

Alex, or Cub as MI6 had insisted that he was to be called while in the company of the SAS men, was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Eagle was most definitely not how he remembered him and Wolf was actually smiling! Snake was still sitting quietly on the floor but Ben, Fox, Alex corrected himself mentally, was on his feet and nervously rubbing the area around his recent bullet wound.

"Yes, Eagle, I did shoot the president. No, I am not going to talk about all my other missions with you. From what I can see of the mess on the ground you have all the information you could need anyway." His voice was bitter and Alex looked at the ground, refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

Snake was watching Alex carefully. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the image of the young boy lying bleeding on the footpath out of his head. "How long ago were you shot Cub?"

"What, doesn't that file tell you? It seems to have every other part of my life. Or have you just not gotten to that part yet?" Snake winced and Alex's eyes flashed when he realized that he had guessed right.

"Alex…"

The teen turned his icy gaze onto Fox and his eyes softened slightly as he looked at the man. The last time he had seen him he had been lying on the ground, covered in blood.

"September. I was shot at the end of September. What about you? Are you going to be ok Ben? I talked to MI6 and they said that they were going to look out for you but…" Alex trailed off as he realized that all four men were looking at him, shocked.

Eagle was the quickest to recover however. "September? That's only four months ago Cub! How many mission have you been on since then? No, forget that, how did you know Fox's real name and that he had been shot?"

Thankfully Fox answered, relieving Alex as the centre of attention. "Do you remember what I told you about my mission on Dragon Nine? Alex was the MI6 agent that was able to disarm the bomb and he was with me when I got shot."

After he had answered Eagle, Fox stepped forward and put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "I'm going to be fine Alex. The will be no lasting damage and the doctors say that I'm healing well. They took me off the painkillers though so it twinges a bit sometimes. Hopefully that will stop soon. MI6 say that I'm almost ready to go back to active duty which is part of the reason I was assigned to be a part of your protection detail. It gives me a good opportunity to get better while still doing valuable work and MI6 get an agent inside the SAS team that they had assigned to look after you."

"I'm glad that you're going to be ok Ben. I'm not sure about Eagle and Snake though." Alex grinned and looked at the two SAS men he had mentioned. "The last two times I have worked with someone from K-Unit they have been shot. Fox and Wolf have already had their turn so I wonder which of you two are going to be next."

Eagle and Snake exchanged an anxious glance before turning back to Alex in time to see Wolf hit him in the back of the head. "Stop frightening my men Cub. No one is going to get shot, understand?"

Alex rubbed his head and nodded, grumbling. He had only been trying to mess with Eagle and Snake but Alex couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy. So far a member of K-Unit had been shot each time he worked with one of them and some part of him couldn't help but wonder who would be next.

Casting aside any thoughts of the SAS men being shot, Cub turned and studied his fellow team members. None of them were how he remembered them and Alex was slowly beginning to realize that his first impressions of K-Unit were drastically wrong. Hell, Wolf was even smiling! As he remembered the shouting drill sergeant Alex began to see why things were different this time. SAS training wasn't really a time that brought out the best side of people. As he looked at his team, Cub found himself wanting to actually get to know the men. If each of them turned of to be anything like Ben then Brecon Beacons might not even be that bad this time around.

Wolf frowned, puzzled, as Cub got a goofy smile on his face as he zoned out. For a moment Wolf wondered what the teen could be thinking about before he decided that he really didn't care. Somewhere in the distance a horn sounded. "Alright Cub, the question and answer session is over. It's dinner time." Without waiting for Cub to answer, Wolf turned and strode out of the cabin, ignoring Eagle's complains about the so called food that was served in the mess hall.

* * *

The current batch of SAS recruits were still rather new. They had been training at Brecon Beacons for 23 days now and the food, while high in the proteins and energy, did nothing for moral. The men were exhausted and irritable and generally in a bad mood.

Alex walked in with K-Unit and he could practically feel every eye in the room boring into him.

"What's a kid doing here? He's not here to train, surely?" Alex heard one man say sceptically and he knew that the rest of the recruits were echoing the question or something similar.

After he and K-Unit had collected their trays of food, Wolf led them over to sit at the instructor's area. Snake sent him a look that clearly said that he thought Wolf was pushing his luck to try and sit there but Wolf just shrugged. He had already been through training and he wasn't going to put up with sitting with all the recruits. He had noticed the hostile glances that had been sent towards Alex and he was in no mood to deal with them now.

They sat down and began to eat in silence but it wasn't long before Eagle became bored. "You seem to make friends wherever you go, don't you Cub?" he remarked, waving his fork absentmindedly towards the tables full of glaring and muttering recruits.

Alex just laughed as a chunk of mystery meat fell off the wildly swinging fork and landed in Fox's lap. The MI6 agent swore and promptly threw the meat back at Eagle, causing it to bounce off his head, leaving a brown mark where it had hit. Before Eagle could retaliate however, Wolf grabbed the younger man's arm. "Honestly Eagle. You're as bad as a three year old. The food is supposed to stay on the fork and the fork is supposed to go straight from plate to mouth, not take detours all over the table and your team members. How Nancy thought that you would make a responsible father, I'll never know."

Snake laughed and clapped Eagle on the shoulder, telling him to "cheer up. You'll get it eventually!"

Alex swallowed a mouthful of potatoes before turning to Wolf. "Who's Nancy?" He asked.

"Nancy is Eagle's wife. Personally I think he blackmailed her into marrying him because there is no way a woman that pretty would marry Eagle voluntarily, let alone have his kid." Fox answered as he used a napkin to wipe the meat stain off his uniform.

"Eagle has a kid?" Alex said, ignoring Eagle's vocal protests that he did not blackmail his wife.

Snake rolled his eyes at Eagle before he answered Alex. "Yeah, a son, Andy. He's four months old; Fox and I are his godparents. And before you ask, none of the rest of us has kids. I've a fiancée though."

Alex nodded thoughtfully as he continued to eat the rest of his meal. He had never thought that any of K-Unit might have families.

"It wasn't this bad last time."

"Huh?" Alex said, turning to look at Wolf. The leader of K-Unit was sitting thoughtfully, his meal forgotten. Wolf hadn't even realized that he'd spoken aloud. "Wolf? What wasn't as bad last time?"

Wolf blinked and looked at Alex as he was startled out of his thoughts. "The recruits. They really don't like you Cub. Last time it wasn't anywhere near this bad."

Alex looked at Wolf for a moment, puzzled. "It was, Wolf. You just probably didn't notice it because you hated me too." His voice was bitter.

"That's a bit harsh Cub. Wolf didn't hate you. He just disliked you a little bit." Snake said, rushing to the defence of his friend.

Alex rolled his eyes. "You four did everything physically possible to get me binned. You tripped me, hid my stuff, lied to me, and left me behind in team exercises. Wolf even pushed me into a stun grenade in the Killing House to make me fail an exercise."

Each member of K-Unit shuffled guiltily at hearing Alex recount some of the things that had happened during training. Alex felt the mood at the table change and, seeing the apologetic faces of each of his team members he decided to let it go. So far this time around K-Unit were making an effort to be nice to him and he didn't want to spoil that by holding a grudge. "I got my own back though when I kicked Wolf out of the plane for that parachute training." Alex joked. "That was definitely the highlight of training. _'Experience the SAS; Kick a man out of a plane.'_" Alex laughed.

Wolf choked on a hunk of meat and Eagle, Snake and Fox each had identical expressions of glee on their faces that could never mean anything good. Too late, Alex realized that Wolf had never told his team members about how he had frozen up. "Opps" Alex said, shrugging his hands helplessly at Wolf. The gesture of apology was spoiled somewhat by the wide grin on his face.

It took Wolf a good ten minutes to convince his team mates that Cub had taken him by surprise and that it wasn't any where near as funny as it sounded. He had had to jump out of the plane anyway. Alex noticed that Wolf hadn't mentioned that he had frozen up when he had gone to make the drop which was how Alex had been able to kick him out. Alex contemplated telling K-Unit what had really happened but he decided against it. If Wolf wanted to pretend that it hadn't happened then he wasn't going to argue, especially when he considered that Wolf would probably kill him if he did say anything.

When they had finished eating K-Unit left the mess hall and made their way back to the cabin, being careful to avoid any particularly muddy patches on the ground. "We're going to need to asses you tomorrow Cub. We know some of the things that you can do from reading your file but we need to know your fitness levels and some other stuff so we can train you properly." Wolf said as he pushed open the wooden door to their cabin and stepped inside, ignoring the mess of papers on the floor.

"What exactly have you read?" Alex asked, curious. He knew from the size of the file that it was extensively detailed and he had already guessed that K-Unit hadn't read all of it.

"We're up to the part where you joined Scorpia and found out that your father was an assassin. Things have been getting exciting! You've just been sent to kill Mrs Jones." Eagle sounded thrilled, as if he was talking about his favourite action novel and Alex winced, recalling the incident.

"You might want to hurry up and get to the next part Eagle. If involves a twelve car pile up and a fight with a guy armed with a samurai sword aboard a hot air balloon." Alex was smiling and his tone was joking but Eagle could tell that it was forced.

Before anyone could comment on it though, Alex had grabbed a towel and some fresh clothes from his bag and he was heading back towards the door. "I'm going to go take a shower. I'll see you guys later."

Wolf opened his mouth to protest but Alex was already gone. For a moment he thought about following Alex out but he decided against it. The casual way Eagle had talked about his mission had obviously upset the boy but there was nothing that Wolf could do about it now.

Glaring at a rather guilty looking Eagle, Wolf turned and began to pick up the papers that littered the floor of the cabin. Fox and Snake bent down to help him, sorting the papers as they went. Soon they would need to finish reading the file to find out exactly why Alex had been sent to Brecon Beacons, but for now, it didn't matter. As one K-Unit left the cabin and made their way towards the showers, Snake having convinced Eagle to apologize for being 'insensitive' and 'rude'.

* * *

**A/N**

**I'm sorry! I know I promised that it would update nearly a month ago (a month! gosh thats a long time and i feel soooo guilty! I'm sorry!) and I fully intended to but life just got in the way. My dad broke up with his partner of 3 years and I spent the first week of my holidays helping her move out and then, before i could really buckle down and use the rest of my holidays to do tons of writing, i found out that my Aunt has cancer and that it's terminal. We then left the next day to drive down to see her and i couldn't get access to a computer to do my writing. So sorry! I promise that it will never take this long to update again! **

**Please tell me what you think of this chapter and thank you to all those people who reviewed and/or favourited this story!**

**Ali Ranger51**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Alex stalked towards the shower block, trying-and failing-not to get angry at Eagle. He knew that the older man hadn't meant to sound so uncaring, but that hadn't meant that it hadn't hurt to hear his life talked about as if it was nothing more than a popular action novel. He was real, dammit, not just a character in a book or file. That stuff had all happed to him, and hell, it was still happening to him.

He stomped violently along the muddy path, not caring about the muck that was splashing up and coating his boots and legs. He was going to have a shower anyway, and he'd been coated in far worse than a bit of mud. When he finally reached the end of the path, he stood outside for a moment, just looking at the old and familiar building.

The shower block was large and wooden, and just like all the other buildings in the camp, there were no heaters. He knew from training that it got bloody cold as soon as you shut the water off, that is, if you were actually lucky enough to get the water warmer than lukewarm anyway. The Inside of the building was a single room with rows of open, communal stalls and benches for clothing along the walls. There was next to no privacy, which was something that had really bothered Alex for the first couple of days during his previous stay at Brecon Beacons, but he'd quickly become too tired to care that he was showering naked with a bunch of adult guys. He was slightly nervous about it again this time, but not because of any shyness about his manly bits. He just didn't want everyone to see his scars.

Scar-spotting had been something that the recruits had done last time, and he sure wasn't looking forward to it again. Basically, the only rule was if there was a scar anywhere on your body, it was fair game for the others to question you about it, and keep ribbing you (for days if necessary) until you gave up the story of how you got it. He'd thought that gossiping while naked in the showers was a kind of girl thing to do, but he supposed that sharing tales of fights, wars, and misadventures with axes was a rather man thing to do. Admittedly, he'd rather enjoyed hiding in the background and eavesdropping on the different conversations and stories, but he just knew that the game wasn't going to be anywhere near as enjoyable now. After all, it wasn't as if he could pass off the bullet scar as anything else.

Sighing and sending a silent prayer that the shower block would be empty, Alex pushed open the heavy wooden doors and entered the building. He was careful to remember to toe his boots off and put them in a dirty cubbyhole before entering the main building. The last time he'd forgotten to take his boots off, he'd left muddy footprints all over the concrete floor, and earned punishment duty from the Sergeant that had included scrubbing the entire showers by hand.

For perhaps the first time since he'd arrived, Alex was in luck. There didn't appear to be anyone else here, and Alex quickly made his was over to the closest stall, pulling his shirt over his head as he went. He knew that his luck wasn't likely to last for long, so he aimed to have as fast a shower as possible and be out and dressed before anyone else showed up.

As Alex finished pulling off the rest of his soiled uniform and turned on the water, he found that his luck was still holding out. It was warm. Quickly, before the warm water ran out, Alex ducked under the weak stream and gave a sigh of relief. There was absolutely nothing else at Brecon Beacons that compared to the feeling of a good, hot, shower. He closed his eyes and just stood there for a moment, letting the miraculously warm water run over him. Apparently, that was all it took for his luck to run out.

A unit of new recruits entered the shower room, grumbling and complaining loudly. They kicked off their boots, not bothering to place them into a cubbyhole, and made their way further into the room. Alex couldn't help his groan, and he turned his back to the men, doing his best to ignore them. Despite not wanting to attract the attention of the men, he wasn't going to cut his shower short just to avoid them.

It didn't take long for the trainees to notice him and to approach him, sneering.

"What you doing here, kid? This place is for real men, and not pansy Girl Scouts like you." The man that spoke looked at him as if he was a particularly disgusting bug that had climbed into his boot.

Alex shifted slightly, the toes and balls of his feet finding purchase on the rough concrete. "It's none of your business why I'm here. And if anyone here is the Girl Scout, it's you." He couldn't help himself. Alex knew that it was stupid to provoke the man, especially while the rest of the man's unit was standing behind him to back him up. He was still pissed off at Eagle and the rest of K-Unit for reading his file, MI6 for announcing details of his life-his-to the entire bloody world, and Scorpia, for not leaving him the fuck alone in the first place. A good fight to let off a bit of steam was just what he needed.

The man reacted just as expected and lunged forward, trying to grab his shoulder, but Alex moved to the side, grinning. He stepped back further into the group shower and turned on a few more showerheads. If the men wanted to fight him, they were going to have to come to him and get themselves, and their clothes, wet in the process. Wet clothes wouldn't be a big hindrance, but they would be a bother, and if Alex was going to fight naked, he was going to do his best to make sure that his opponents looked ridiculous too.

He moved into an unmistakeable fighting stance, left leg forward, balanced on the ball of his foot, weight on his back leg, hands raised and curled into fists in front of him. Alex opened his right hand, palm up, before giving the men a cheeky grin and a 'bring it' motion.

The man who had spoken was the first to move, lunging forward through the spray of water, trying once more to get his hands on Alex. Alex grabbed the front of his uniform with his still open hand and pulled the man towards him, forcing him off balance. He twisted his body slightly to the right and swung his left elbow around into the side of the larger man's head. The man dropped like a stone, out cold, and the other three trainees rushed forward as one, shouting out insults at him.

The next few moments were a blur of punches and blocks, water raining down around them. As Alex snapped out a powerful roundhouse kick at the guy he thought was the unit leader, another man lunged at him, catching him off balance and knocking him to the hard floor.

Alex attempted to roll sideways and get back onto his feet, but the third man kicked him harshly in the ribs. Water streamed into Alex's eyes as he gasped in pain. Perhaps picking a fight hadn't been such a good idea. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to just lie down and take it.

He snapped his leg up and swiftly kicked the man on his left in the groin, before once more trying to jump to his feet. His Karate Sensei had always drilled into him that if he ever ended up in the ground during a fight, he was to either get up as soon as possible or curl into a ball and cover his head. It didn't matter how good someone was, if they ended up trapped on the ground in a fight, they were dead meat.

As soon as he managed to spring to his feet, the leader caught his hair in his large fist and basically threw him into the concrete wall of the stall. He managed to turn slightly, lessening the impact on his shoulder, but he still hissed in pain as the rough concrete scraped his bare skin.

He managed to keep his feet, barely, but now he was surrounded by the three men and trapped against the wall. The fourth man, the one he had knocked out with the elbow to the head, had regained consciousness and was slowly regaining his feet.

The men were still shouting insults, but Alex wasn't listening. He swore as loud as possible, and hit the man on his right, the same man that he'd hit in the groin before, with a powerful front kick, a Mai Geri to the stomach. The man coughed and bent over, and Alex lunged forward to the opening in the men surrounding him, trying to get out of the stall. He felt the leader grab his arm and take a swing at his head, but his skin was slippery from the water and he easy pulled away, ducking the wild punch. Before he'd made it more than three steps, the fourth man had made his way over, and he was pissed.

The man attempted to punch him in the gut, but he managed to move out of the way. Unfortunately, he moved back into range of the leader, and he felt the man's large arm wrap around his neck in a chokehold. Alex tried to work his hands under the arm to free himself, but there was too much water; he just couldn't get the grip that he needed.

As Alex struggled against the bigger man, driving his elbow into the ribcage behind him, he heard a bunch of other men enter the shower block at a run. Looking between the spots before his eyes, he recognised the men as K-Unit, and Alex felt a wave of relief.

They paused for a moment, taking in the scene, before Wolf barked out an order and the men moved forward as one. They each went directly to one of the trainees, taking them out with well-practiced movements. Wolf went after the man holding him, and Alex felt Wolf's fist whistle past his ear and collide with a satisfying crunch with the unit leader's nose.

Alex wrenched himself out of the man's loosened grip, before spinning around and also punching the man in the jaw. He gave Wolf a nod of thanks, and stepped back to lean against the wall to regain his breath.

Wolf, Fox, Snake and Eagle shut off the water, and gathered around him. "What happened, Cub?" Wolf asked, his eyes cold.

Alex scowled and attempted to appear intimidating, despite being naked, bruised and wet. Eagle was staring rather openly at the scar from the bullet wound in his chest, and Alex resisted the urge to cross his arms to cover it. "Isn't it obvious? I got in a fight. It's not like it's a first for me."

Wolf snorted. "Four against one isn't a fair fight, Cub."

"Did I say it was a fair fight?" Alex said, rolling his eyes. "I can't remember the last time I was in a fair fight."

He tried to push his way past Wolf and out of the shower, but Snake stopped him, a concerned look in his eye. "You're hurt. Stay still for a moment while I have a look at you." He put a hand on Alex's shoulder, tying gently to pull him closer.

Alex shrugged off the hand and exited the stall, walking over to the shelf that held his towel and clean clothes. "I'm fine, I've had worse. I don't need you to have a look at me."

Wolf snarled angrily. "It's not a matter of whether or not you've had worse, Cub, if you're injured you need to be treated, simple as that."

He grabbed his clothes and pulled on his shirt and pants, still dripping wet, and sent an angry glare at K-Unit before marching towards the door. Snake and Wolf were still trying to command him to stop; Fox was attempting to interrogate him about what had happened, while Eagle, thankfully, had his attention on the unit lying groaning on the floor of the shower.

Barefoot, Alex pulled on his muddy boots and ran out the door, disappearing into the camp ground.

* * *

"Why'd he run off?" Eagle asked, puzzled. "We were only trying to help."

Fox snorted. "What, it's not obvious? He's obviously still pissed at us because of the file."

Eagle looked slightly guilty. "It was only a joke. He's just getting worked up over nothing."

"If it was my life that had been broadcasted all over the world, I'd be a little highly strung too, Eagle." Snake was frowning and his entire stance portrayed his worry over the young teen.

"There's nothing that we can do for Cub now, Snake, just let him cool off and you can check him out later back in the cabin. We have other things to worry about at the moment," Wolf said, gesturing to the recruits who were now slowly climbing to their feet.

Eagle grinned at the men and cracked his knuckles threateningly, causing Fox to roll his eyes. "As much as I'd love to personally teach these boys a bit about messing with my unit," Wolf said, "I think that the sergeant can issue a more satisfying punishment."  
Wolf smirked and grabbed the leader of the downed unit by the collar, leaning in until he was inches from the other man's face. "Like a binning."

As Eagle's laugh sounded through the showers, Wolf pushed the man to the ground and turned, leading his unit out the door, leaving muddy boot prints behind them.

* * *

_**A/N**_

_**Look, an update! I bet you're all falling off your seats in shock, because I know I for one can't believe that I actually finally got this chapter written!  
**_

_**I know that a single chapter isn't going to make up for such a long absence, but hopefully I'll be struck with a lot of inspiration and more chapters will follow soon. **_

_**Thank you very much to everyone who has reviewed the story or added it to their favourites and alerts, you managed to get my thick skull to cooperate and get this chapter written. It means a lot to me that there are so many people interested in this story. **_

_**If you're interested in my progress, I have made a Facebook account for my writing, so you can follow that and see what I'm currently working on and if an update is fast (or long) in coming. My name is Alison Rose, and I'll put a link in my profile for anyone interested.**_

_**This story will never be abandoned, and while it may take me ages to update, I am still working on it (or thinking about it at least) behind the scenes.**_

_**I'm thinking of changing my story plan around a bit (that means I'm actually thinking of writing one, rather having a vague idea sitting in the back of my head...), so I'd appreciate it if you tell me what you think. Basically, I'm planning on getting rid of the kids from brookland, and just having a reference to them in the background, rather than having them come to the SAS. What do you think? Honestly, that plot line is a bit overdone and quite unrealistic. If there are no kids, I don't have to worry about writing about useless kids playing soldier, and can focus more on Scorpia and dramatic assassination attempts. MWAHAHAHAHAHA. There'll be a poll on my profile.**_

_**Thank you for reading.**_

**_Ali Ranger51_**


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